Father’s plea for paralysed daughter
Mother-of-one, Catherine O’Leary, 31, from Ballincollig, Co Cork, suffered two massive strokes during brain surgery to remove a tumour in February.
They caused Locked-In Syndrome leaving her fully aware and awake but paralysed from the neck down and unable to speak.
She has spent the past four months in a bed in a high-dependency unit in Cork University Hospital (CUH) because there is no bed available for her in the National Rehabilitation Hospital (NRB) in Dún Laoghaire.
Her father, Pat O’Leary, praised CUH doctors, nurses and physiotherapists who are doing all they can. But he said all the medical experts say his daughter needs specialist and intensive therapy in Dún Laoghaire.
“We are not blaming anybody for this. We were aware that the surgery carried huge risks,” he said.
“But my daughter is a fighter and she is still fighting. Her determination is unbelievable.
“All we are looking for is for my daughter to get the rehab she deserves. But we are banging our heads against a brick wall. We have been told that there are only two beds in the unit in Dublin for people with her condition,” he said.
Catherine began suffering from extreme hiccups 24 hours a day from early 2005. Almost constant vomiting left her extremely debilitated. Two years later, she began to suffer from excruciating and constant headaches. Despite her ill-health, she continued to work in the Subway sandwich outlet in Ballincollig.
Several doctors were unable to establish the cause of the problem before she finally begged a consultant to arrange a brain scan.
It took place in late January and revealed a golf-ball-sized tumour at the back of her brain. Without surgery, she would have been dead within a fortnight. The surgery carried huge risks and Pat said despite the strokes, Catherine is still battling.
Although she should not be able to breathe without the help of a machine, she is breathing unaided.
She has regained some movement in fingers and a leg, and can mouth a few words including the numbers one to five.
It is now that she needs intensive therapy, Pat said.
Catherine’s partner, Nigel Herlihy, and their son, Brandon, eight, have been very traumatised by the situation.
“Brandon thought his mother was going in for a simple operation,” Pat said. “He had his first Holy Communion recently and Catherine wasn’t able to attend it. But we brought him up to the hospital afterwards and we were delighted.”
Pat said his wife Margaret, and their other children, are maintaining a round-the-clock bedside vigil and are doing all they can to keep Catherine’s spirits up.
The family’s local TD, Education Minister Batt O’Keeffe, is aware of Catherine’s case and has made representations on her behalf.
A spokeswoman for the NRB said she couldn’t comment on individual cases, but added that of the NRB’s 119 beds, about three are set aside for high-dependency patients.
The waiting list for its services range between six and nine months, she said.
The NRB has plans to expand bed capacity to 235 in the coming years.
